ESL or Special Education: Challenges Regarding Meetings

I have had ESL students who I felt had learning disabilities. I would express my concerns with the classroom teacher and strategies that could help these students in both classrooms. The next step would be to meet with the school’s intervention team if these strategies were unsuccessful and the student continued showing much difficulty with their learning. I expected to be invited to these meetings, but many times I was not. Or, I would be told that the final, and most important meeting, where staff members present their data and results to each other and to the student’s parents to determine whether the student needs special education had already occurred…without me. My ESL students who had already been identified as special education students would have annual special education meetings…sometimes without me. I have had to remind teachers, special education teachers, and the principal that I need to attend and be a part of these meetings.

Another challenge I sometimes had during these meetings (if I was invited) was not being listened to or valued. Despite presenting my concerns and the results of assessments, I would feel that my presentation was not given merit. My findings and opinions would not be mentioned later in the meeting or considered when determining whether or not this student had a learning disability. At times (and maybe more times than I would like to admit), I did not feel listened to or valued. Despite having a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Special Education as well as being an experienced teacher who cared about my students and who gave quality instruction (I thought!), I sometimes felt that I had no voice.

Similar to the above challenge, I sometimes felt that the information that I presented at meetings was perceived as inaccurate and invalid by some of my colleagues. For example, during a meeting, the guidance counselor of our school claimed that it takes English language learners at least two years to learn their letter names and sounds. Despite disagreeing with him and stating that it typically does not take English language learners two years to learn their letter names and sounds, some of my colleagues would disagree with me stating that it takes a long time for ELL students to acquire the English language. It is true that it may take a long period of time for some ESL students to develop their English language skills, at this rate, ELL students would graduate high school with an elementary level education! This is one of many examples of feeling as if I did not know what I was talking about at special education meetings.

I realize that this post may come across as being negative. I have had meetings that were very positive and productive. After these meetings, I felt excited and thought, “This is why I teach!” This post is about getting real and being honest. It is about being understanding and supportive of ESL teachers who are having, or have had, challenging experiences during meetings and the affects that they have on you. If you have had similar experiences to the ones I have described, you are not alone. If you, at times, do not feel valued as an ESL teacher, you are not alone. If you, at times, feel as if your colleagues perceive you as incompetent and not knowing what you are talking about, you are not alone. If sometimes you feel like an outsider as an ESL teacher in your school district, you are not alone. There is at least one other person out there who has had similar experiences and feelings. And that is me. It can feel very frustrating to experience challenges during meetings and to not feel valued or part of your school district. Remind yourself that you DO know what you are talking about and that you ARE a competent ESL teacher. Remind yourself that you ARE valuable and you are an ASSET to your school district. In addition to these reminders, the best thing that you can do is to care about your students, give quality instruction, and to play your role as a caring, competent, valuable ESL teacher as best as you can.

ESL or Special Education: Overview and Action Plan

Here is an action plan to help you with the process of identifying whether or not your ESL student has a learning disability.

Overview

1. Refer to BICS and CALP as well as the stages of language acquisition.  Is the student making progress?

2.  Are the student’s receptive skills developing before their productive skills?

3. Does the student have a documented disability?

4. Are there factors that could be impeding the child’s ability to learn English?

Action Plan

1.  Discuss concerns with classroom teacher and consult with your ESL colleagues.

2.  Implement strategies in both classrooms that could help the student’s learning.  Document these strategies and their success.

3. If the student continues to struggle, meet with your school’s intervention team.  Present your concerns and data to the team.  Express your observations and show the team a portfolio type assessment which consists of multiple assessments and different types of assessments (reading level, writing samples, vocabulary, and grammar checklists).

4. If the team suggests to test the student, test the student in their native language or the student's stronger language.  If testing the student in their native language is not possible, test the student in English making sure the directions of the assessments are clear and the assessments reflect learning in the classroom.  Tests should be valid, clear, and free of cultural bias.  Assessing the student's knowledge and skills is the goal, so you want to prevent any language barriers that may hinder this assessment.  Make sure you receive permission from parents before testing!

5. Ask the parents about the student’s native language.  Does the student use their first language typical of their peers (disregard typical developmental errors in the native language)?  Are the parents concerned about their child’s native language skills? What kind of errors does the student make?  Has there been a history of difficulty with reading, expressing, or processing language in the family?

6. Meet with your school’s team and parents. Present your test results and suggest an educational plan for the student if necessary. Parents may be very sensitive toward the fact that their child may need special education services.  Be aware that your student’s parents may disagree with this plan and any indication that their child has a learning disability (even if assessments and data support your claim).

7. If the student has a learning disability, meet with the student’s special education teacher to discuss the student and strategies that work for the student’s learning.  ESL students must receive both special education services and ESL services.

ESL or Special Education: Parent Response

If you feel that your ESL student has a learning disability and need to meet with the parents/guardians, one important point to consider is that the parents may refuse to listen or believe you. In some cultures, the term “special education” may refer to students with severe disabilities. If their child does not have a severe disability, then the parent will not perceive their child needing special education services.

Depending on the culture, special education students may have a very negative stigma. If this is the case, they may refuse to believe and accept that their child may need special education services.

In addition, parents may refuse to sign paperwork or give permission for special education testing, even year after year. This may occur despite poor grades that their child receives each school year.

Some parents may blame their child’s English skills as the sole reason for their lack of success in school.

As an ESL teacher, you play your role as best as you can. At every parent/teacher conference, it is important to discuss with the parents their child’s strengths in academic, social, and emotional areas. When discussing challenges, I mention how much their child would benefit from more academic support. I advocate for their child every year as long as they are my student.

If nothing occurs from our discussions, at the beginning of every school year, I voice my concerns to the student’s new classroom teacher. I have found that classroom teachers do their best to modify work and group students according to their ability whether they are officially special education students or not.

It was very difficult for me to observe my ESL students struggle every single school year without extra support that could have been given to this student if they received special education services.

My Personal Experience:

I had an ESL student whose parents never signed paperwork for special education testing even though this student really needed extra academic support. This occurred every school year. One of my other students was a twin who, in my opinion, needed special education services. It was more apparent with this particular student because she had a twin sister who did not greatly struggle academically. When the student was in fifth grade, we had a conference with the parents about their child’s difficulty and lack of academic progress. We suggested special education testing to see if she needed services. The parents refused to consider special education services for their child and now she is a senior in high school still struggling in school.

ESL or Special Education: Documented Disability and Native Language Assessments

Documented Disability

The easiest way to determine whether your ESL student has a learning disability is if there is a documented disability in their first language. This means that the student was formally tested and based on the results, the student was identified as having a language or learning disability. If a student has a documented disability in their first language, then they should already be receiving special education services. A documented disability means that the student’s difficulty in learning is due to an overall language or learning disability.  Their learning difficulties are not solely due to learning the English language.

Assessing the Student in their Native Language

The best way to determine whether your ESL student’s difficulty in learning is due to language or learning a second language is by assessing the student in their first language or in their stronger language.  By assessing the student in their first language or stronger language, you are eliminating the possibility that the student’s learning difficulties are solely due to learning English. Assessing the student in their native language should be done if the student has had prior educational experiences in their native language. For example, if the student never learned to read or write in their native language, then this student’s reading and writing skills should not be assessed in their first language.

Informal Assessments

What do school districts do if it is not possible to test the student in their native language?

One solution could be to undergo an informal assessment by a teacher who speaks the language of the student who needs to be assessed. In addition, meeting with the parents or guardians to obtain information about the student’s first language skills is critical. If the parents report that their child makes errors in their first language atypical of their same aged peers who share the same first language, culture, and educational experiences, then the student’s difficulty in learning may be due to an overall language difficulty. I stressed the word atypical because if all children make the same language errors in the student’s native language, then the errors are natural, developmental errors and are not a concern.

Also, if parents report that their child had difficulty learning in their native language and country, then this is evidence that the child may have a learning disability.

My Personal Experience:

I previously wrote about a student who has a documented disability in reading. During the conference with the student’s parents, the student’s father stated that he had much difficulty reading Spanish in school in his native country of Mexico. This was a helpful piece of information that was added to our other data in determining whether or not this ESL student has a reading disability.I taught two twin girls who came from Macedonia. One of the girls learned English typically of most ESL students, but the other twin had difficulty and made significantly less progress. Because both students came from the same background (language, culture, educational experiences), it was easier for me to differentiate whether her learning difficulties were due to the English language or a learning disability in her first language.